A crying 6-year-old was brought to an emergency department after being found sluggish and cold to the touch. The parents had been at work when the babysitter gave several cookies from the kitchen to the child as a snack. Each cookie contained several adult doses of THC, the part of marijuana that gets people high. The child was admitted to the hospital overnight and recovered.
This was just one of 244 cases of cannabis edible exposures among children 5 and younger reported in 2023 to the Illinois Poison Center.
The number of such cases has risen sharply since state legalization of marijuana in 2020, the center reports. In 2019, the year before legalization, there were only 37 such cases. Once licensed weed edibles became widely available, that number more than tripled to 147 in 2020, rose to 206 in 2021, dipped slightly to 184 in 2022, and reached 244 in 2023.
Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, a member of the state Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, advocates for the medical use of marijuana, but warns strongly against unauthorized use by kids.
When Mendoza Temple was 3, she got into her mother’s purse and ate her medication, prompting her mother to stick her finger down her child’s throat to induce vomiting, so the doctor knows firsthand what’s at stake.
“It’s a recipe for disaster if an adult leaves them out, especially when it looks appealing to kids,” she said. “That’s been deeply concerning to me from day one.
“Treat them with the same respect you would you prescription meds,” she urged parents.
Two other cases cited by the poison center last year further show how these drugs can wind up in the wrong mouths.
A 2-year-old child was found poorly responsive at home. The child’s visiting grandparents noted that their baggie filled with eight medical cannabis gummies was missing. At the hospital, the child was unresponsive and had a urine test positive for THC. The child was admitted to the hospital, recovered completely after more than a day and was discharged.
In a more extreme case, a 3-year-old child was brought to a hospital with a new onset of seizures. The child had more seizures in the emergency department. A urine test found THC. The mother had stored multiple cannabis gummies, left over from a wedding celebration, in her purse. All the gummies were missing.
Illinois law prohibits marijuana use from being the sole or primary reason to be denied parental rights — unless the parent’s actions created an “unreasonable danger” to the child. In divorce court, for instance, a judge may consider cannabis use, or allowing a minor access to weed, among other factors.
Cannabis industry experts contacted by the Tribune did not know of any cases in which a parent was charged criminally due to a child ingesting pot, but it’s not unprecedented. In one recent case in Ohio, a father was charged with endangering a child, a misdemeanor, after his 5-year-old child ate a THC gummy and was taken to a hospital for an overdose.
Nationally, exposures to children 5 and under increased 1,375% from 2017 to 2021, with a rising rate of hospitalizations. The Tribune first flagged the problem in 2022.
Overall, cases of cannabis exposure reported to the Illinois Poison Center more than doubled from 505 in 2019 to 1,045 in 2023. More than one-third of those involved youths 6 to 19 years old.
An added hazard has arisen in recent years, with the proliferation of hemp-derived pot knockoffs like delta-8-THC and delta-10, synthetically derived variations on traditional delta-9-THC.
Hemp, defined as cannabis that has less than 0.3 % THC, was made federally legal in 2018. Lawmakers intended it to be nonintoxicating, but manufacturers have figured out how to derive intoxicating cannabinoids from hemp.
Last year, out of 40 cases in which package size was listed, 27 had greater than 100 milligrams of THC, the legal limit for licensed cannabis. The oversize packages suggest they may have been from the many unlicensed smoke shops and gas stations that sell hemp products, which are unregulated.
Illinois lawmakers couldn’t decide between regulating or banning the products this spring, so they did nothing. Unlike licensed cannabis, which must undergo testing and labeling and is only available to those 21 and over, hemp products remain unregulated, without even a legal age restriction, though some companies impose their own age limits and testing.
Nevertheless, exposures appear to occur with both licensed and unlicensed products, said Dr. Michael Wahl, medical director of the poison center.
Adults should be careful to treat edibles like medicine, he said. Keep them locked out of sight and out of reach, away from the kitchen, not in a jar or plastic ware but in child-proof packaging that kids can’t see inside.
Nationally, 3,358 cases of delta-8-THC exposures were reported to U.S. poison centers in 2022, the most recent year with available data. Almost 1 out of 3 were for children 5 and under, while another 26% were ages 6 to 19. Most of the rest were young adults.
The numbers are concerning to health officials — though a far cry from the ravages of the opioid epidemic. There were more than 15,000 nonfatal exposures to opioids in Illinois alone in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available, and more than 3,000 opioid deaths that year in the state. There were zero deaths reported to the poison center from cannabis.
Mild symptoms of cannabis include dry mouth, red eyes and increased appetite. More severe systems may include paranoia, increased pulse, higher blood pressure, confusion, hallucinations and lack of coordination. More commonly, many children experience a depressed central nervous system, from sleepiness to sometimes being comatose.
Common treatments include rest and observation, intravenous fluids and eating. Rarely, oxygen therapy is used, sometimes with intubation. Breathing, seizures and vomiting must be monitored.
Whether hemp or regular cannabis, Wahl said, “There’s no antidote, so (in milder cases) it’s just waiting for the body to metabolize it and return to normal.”
Anyone with questions may call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
